The use of double-bladed paddles are well known in the field of recreational water sports and more specifically to non-motorized watercrafts such as canoes and kayaks in order to allow users to optimize the performance of their watercrafts. Double-bladed paddles preferably have blades with planes that are offset from each other by an angle between 0 and 90 degrees, a term generally defined as being feathered. Feathering of the blades function to allow each of the blades to cut cleanly through the air during the forward stroke leading to minimum windage thereby alleviating some of the stress on the user's wrist resulting from the windage.
One of the problems associated with using feathered double-bladed paddles is that they may take some getting used to since a user's paddling style may differ due to the specific user's body type and comfort level. Since a user's paddling style generally differs from user to user, using a double-bladed paddle that is feathered to a fixed blade angle, which the user is not comfortable with may lead to possible wrist injuries due to the repetitive stress on the user's wrist resulting from the uncomfortable fixed feathered angle of the blades.
Double-bladed water paddle that allow for the custom angularly positioning or custom feather of the blades are known in the art but have numerous deficiencies. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,881,111 to Bridge et al. discloses a paddle shaft coupling system comprising a first shaft having protrusions located at the opposite end of a paddle blade. The protrusions are inserted into an interior of a second shaft until the protrusions are extended into receptacles, which are located completely within the second shaft. One of the problems associated with U.S. Pat. No. 6,881,111 is that since the protrusions mate with the receptacles inside the second shaft, obstructions that may hinder and/or prevent the mating or engagement of the protrusions and receptacles are not only difficult to detect but also difficult to remove from inside of the shaft and may require special tools to assist in their removal. The aforementioned is especially problematic if the water paddle is used around sandy beaches where grains of sand may often time get into the paddle shafts.
Another problem associated the water paddle disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,881,111 is that since it provides for a one-button disconnection system, accidental bumps on the release button by the user during usage of the water paddle may result in accidental disconnection of the paddle shafts leading to safety concerns to the user.